I have recently become a principal analyst for Ovum, part of the Datamonitor Group. As a member of the Financial Services Technology team, I am responsible for Ovum’s global insurance technology research. However, please keep in mind that the opinions (and rants) expressed in this blog are mine alone as are any errors that may appear in the posts.
My appreciation of and interest in the impact of current and emerging technology on society generally and the insurance industry more specifically has evolved and deepened over my career.
My career has built on three major experiences and two inflection points. For the first twenty years I worked in the marketing and market research departments of AEtna Life & Casualty, John Hancock Financial Services, The Hartford and Phoenix Mutual.
Then the first inflection point happened: I shifted from the insurance industry to spend eight years in management consulting industry. Almost all of that time I was an insurance consultant with Arthur D. Little. I got additional consulting experience working for IBM Global Services and BearingPoint. And then the second inflection point happened: I became an insurance industry analyst.
Dale Kutnick hired me to launch and lead the insurance advisory service at The META Group in the mid-1990s. From META I went to Advisen (a pure-play commercial property/casualty and risk management information provider) and then to IDC to lead the global insurance advisory service at Financial Insights (an IDC Company).
Insurance industry to management consulting to industry analyst. I have appreciated (almost) all the experiences through the decades. But it became obvious to me that the second inflection point brought me home to where I belong: as an industry analyst.
Rabkin's ROI 
Barry:
Good afternoon.
I found your article referencing “If I were King” sobering, and a bit quixotic. While I certainly agree with your observations, I have yet to encounter many P/C executives willing to invest their reputations (quite literally) in the variety of activities you advocate. Additionally, having endured a four year ‘rip and replace’ of legacy systems, I can only observe that such a step is only for the most committed (pun intended).
You’ve some excellent thoughts and I will stay in touch.
best,
bc
Barry, interesting observations about Dell’s acquisition of Perot – though I seem to have heard similar comments being made about IBM when they moved into IT Outsourcing back in the early/mid 90’s. I hear lots of war stories about the changes in EDS following HP’s acquisition – usually involving long haul flights in economy and the purging of the Project Management professional ranks. Maybe they’re just trying to get back to being 3 (or was it 2) smart guys and a garage!
Keep ’em coming
BK